Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Lies Low

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhod has recently displayed rather cautious behavior such as refusing to participate in strikes against the government. There apparently is considerable fear among its leaders that President Mubarak is seeking an incident of violence which would allow him to use the full power of government in order to completely disband the Muslim Brotherhood. As Kaili Al Anani points out in the Daily News, “it is completely aware that the regime is waiting for any opportunity to finish it off at any price and arrest its leading figures.” Brotherhood leadership is trapped in a quandry, do they urge the masses to rise up in protest and seek to make changes, an action that might result in slaughter of thousands or do they lie low and wait for a better opporunity to take a stand?

The April 6th strikes did impact Egyptian society although it certainly did not force the Mubarak government to initiate any dramatic reforms. Egyptian is a time bomb waiting to explode but the Bush administration is so focused on Iraq it does not grasp the possibility of an even greater danger to the west of Iraq.